266 FIELD AND FERN. 



forty bullocks. There is a raised alley between the 

 rows, but the bullocks were still afield, and we 

 had not the luxury of an " over-sight " no small 

 gain in showing off any beast, as buyers of bull 

 calves have found to their cost, when the ring-ground 

 has been well chosen. 



The dairy stands a few yards off, among some fine 

 old trees, and adjoins the poultry-yard, which has 

 long been famous for its breed of white Dorkings. 

 A larch bole does duty as table in the dairy parlour, 

 and in its polished surface we read its own infallible 

 ring register of some fifty years' growth. The little 

 fox in fire-clay on the chimney-piece has no breath- 

 ing type about Scone ; pheasants scurry in troops 

 across the path as we wend our way through the 

 grounds ; and hares get up all round us at Waterloo 

 slip distance, as we cross the hundred-acre field in 

 front of the Palace, and find West Highlanders and 

 crosses, nearly ten-score strong, edging away to 

 the water and the woodlands, to be out of the 

 noon-tide heat. 



There is very little breeding in Strathmore, and 

 Falkirk September and October trysts and the York- 

 shire calf-men are generally looked to for stores. 

 The EarFs flock of Leicesters numbers about six score 

 ewes, principally of Border blood ; and the wedder 

 and ewe hoggs are all fed off the first spring. A 

 thousand blackfaced three-year-old wedders from 

 Cullow are also fed off on turnips, and consigned by 

 the end of May to the Edinburgh market, when they 



